Musings of a small press publisher & author of gay smut

This week I’ve re-released a favorite story of mine, Tricked Out, which was previously published by Aspen Mountain Press.

This is one of those stories it seems you either love or hate. I personally really like it, particularly the characters Will and Corey. However, some readers can’t stand it, I don’t know why. Eh, I guess it just goes to show you can’t please everyone all the time.

To be honest, this isn’t really the type of story I’d usually write. I was actually asked by my editor as Aspen Mountain if I’d write a police procedural for an anthology that never materialized (no surprise there). The focus for me was more the relationship between the characters — and Will’s wounded heart from a previous relationship — than any actual detective work or police case. Maybe that’s why some readers don’t like this — it’s less Columbo than they’d like it to be. Ah well, I still like it.

Willis Moore is a detective with the Richmond City police department. A case he was involved with went down badly and he was given a month’s sabbatical to pull himself together after the death of his informant, a young man named Teabag, with whom Will had let himself become sexually involved.

Back on the force now, Will finds himself drawn to another street punk, a hustler named Corey, who seeks police assistance to protect his “boys” from a violent attacker. He and Corey work well together, and Will dares to hope their relationship might be heading toward something more. But he still can’t seem to shake the feeling he will eventually fail to protect the hustler … the same way he failed to save Tea.